THE DANGER FOR MIDEUROPE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1923, Page 4

THE DANGER FOR MIDEUROPE.

(Bv 0. AV;ii(l Price, in London 11 Dailv Mail.”) “If wo allow Knropc to disintegrate nothing can save this country from the continuance of appalling trade conditions or from .social reactions among our people* that may lie beyond the power of all statesincusliij* to cope with."—The Prime .Minister at the Unionist Party meeting on ."Wav 28th. LAUSAXXK, June J. ft is a real danger to wld< h the Prime Minister tire tv attention in the above words. To me, having just returned to this Xoar-Kastern Confereme at Lausanne from a tour of Central Ktnope, they come home with special force iis wise comment upon tendencies I have found plainly manliest in both places. Among tile nev. conditions which have transformed Mid-Kurope since the war. the most noticeable of all. indeed. is liability to disintegration. As you c ross from out* small State to another and hear in each the same tale of resentment against a neighbour: when you visit places that wore once useful planets in a solar system of Continental commerce and are now jealously engaged in trying to throw off satellites for trade constellations of their own, you realise that the economic unity upon which the complex organisation of Kiiropcnn civilisation was raised has been split up, and that there is danger of the process going further. The prosperous outward appearance of Prague or Warsaw or Budapest does not suggest this view. The blight has not yet gone deep enough to all’eet the standard of living of most of their inhabitants. Xor are the leaders nl these freshly-fashioned Stales at present mill’ll perturb' d by it. Bather —in the case of Czec ho-,Slovakia and Poland - are they full of the .self-conlidence horn of sudden, unhoped-fur national resurrection. But the danger to which the Prime .Minister referred is plain on the horizon. and will grow, unless measures, in v, Inch British traders (tin co-operate, are taken to disperse it. There is no avoiding the sinister facts that through out Central Kitrepe— Large eronnmic unities hate been replaced by a patchwork of smaller i.nes ; Turin' barriers slop i'he wav v. here merchandise once moved freely; Uncertain and degenerate pnporlnniiex has taken the plate ol stable t PIT' m y ; A once uniform railway system has been eip up into odd remnants The old ranker of the oppression nl one race h\ another has not been removed. only shifted; And lastly, as a minor hut additional hindrance to foreign trade, that in each new (Oiinlrv an unintelligible national language is now tisod lor all official purposes instead of the Merman which used to he the ‘’lingua franca” of Knropc east of the llhine. Only last mouth the Czochn-Slovaks ('used their frontier against the Him garians for several weeks, as the result of a skirmish on the houndary-line between armed Customsmen. in which a Czeilio-islovak was killed. Harassed peasants. <|iutc innocent of the allair. whose cattle were grazing beyond the border when the decree was published, had many of their beasts stolen, and in trying to bring in the rest across the imaginary line, some farmers acre arrested and still lie in prison. Which side was in the wrong dues not affect the obvious teudeinv to disintegration that such conditions constitute .

Putting political considerai ions aside tlif- plain reality remains that, yen have in Alid-I'hirope three State's which, till a tew years hack, formed part nl hitihly-oroanisetl, rich nations, and shared proportionately in their economic prosperity. Of these three States,. 11 unparv is economically dyiti”; ; Poland is econotnieally bankrupt ; onlc ( zerho-Xlovakia (whi"h. in the shred din*; of the Aitsfro-llnnparian lettuce wot jtwiiy with the heart), is solvent ami she at present looks at tradi through stronoly nationalist spectacles What is the remedy? To repair :ts lar as possible the economic unity that lots been broken, lint how ;' A customs I'nimi is the first wav that Mipoests itself, hut. it, (lashes with individual national interests. "It we establish a. Znllvereir. (Customs ITuon). Czechoslovak industries will he in danper of beitu: exploited for the bencht of the rest of Central I'birone. ns they used to he exploited Id i the rest of the Ausiro-! I i.noarian Kmpire,” l)r Denes, the CzerhoSlmak I'dreipu .Minister, told me.

lie propn-cs separately concluded commercial treaties a- an alternal i ve. hut -aid that Boland and Hungary will m;t meet him half way. In the latter countries t hey I cl! you .ol course that they arc perfectly willing. hut that Czccho-Slovakia i- very .I: fii.-i 1 11 to get on with. Since ('/.ctlio-Sl'ivaktia is the richest and must energetic of these Mid-Mur.i-peau States, the world certainly lias a right to look to her to take flic lead in reorganising cuinmcrce in that region tu the general gain of civilisation. And in that effort she deserves the active .support of British (npil.nl and enterprise. I.oiidon is still the centre to uhicli all these (oentries lock instinctively, and a hand raised to help Hi. m there will produce more effect than far gieater exertions on the spot. To the argument that the instability o 1 Central Mtirune makes it a risky place for giving Br7li-h ire,lit. the answer may. well he that even from our own standpoint the risk is worth it. British niniiul'a.'-Dire is suffering from the fact that industries during the war were reorganised on the basis of possessing in the (li.'voriimcnt an assured market for their output, regardesss of the tost of production. Tint, market has disappeared, and has not been replaced by a restoration of normal consumption abroad. The vital necessity of resuscitating Central Kuropcan sales is therefore great enough to justify hold action which in minim) times miglii have been deemed iiicniitions. ft is essential to a revival of British tiade that- peace and prosperity should he maintained among Czecho-Slovakia. Hungary, Boland, Jugoslavia, Rumania and as far as possible among flreoct*. Bulgarin and Turkey too. .lust as France takes deep interest in the military efficiency of some of these fstal.es because she may one day need their j support, so we should take deep interest, in their commercial welfare he-i cause wc at this moment need their

markets. And by helping to build up sound economic conditions in Central Kuropc. Great Britain would he reducing the likelihood of political intrigues by these Slates in the Near Mast. There the danger of disintegration takes- the more formidable form of threatened war. As one watches these diplomats at Lausanne painstakingly drafting a treaty so complete that it may cover every possible contingency that, can ever arise, one realises sadly that they are probably only ploughing the sand. The dash between Greeks and Turks has been delayed hut not dispelled .and behind .it stands the old coveting of the Serbs for Salonika and the Bulgurs for Dedengateli. It may he impossible completely to extinguish these old Balkan embers, but by building up Central Europe we can prevent, them from spreading.